Newsflash: Advertising Agency runs an Advertisement!

It so seldom happens that an advertising agency runs an advertisement for itself that the Wall Street Journal devoted its entire advertising column yesterday to cover the story.

"McCann Hopes to Restore Its Luster"

By BRIAN STEINBERG and SUZANNE VRANICA
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 1, 2004; Page B8

NEW YORK -- McCann Worldgroup, the jewel of ad-agency holding company Interpublic Group of Cos., is trying to shine again.

Advertising agencies regularly launch campaigns for flashy marketers such as Coca-Cola Co. or Nike Inc. -- but they rarely do the same for themselves. McCann Worldgroup, which counts Microsoft Corp. and General Motors Corp. among its clients, is bucking the trend with a full-page ad that has run in Advertising Age and in yesterday's New York regional edition of The Wall Street Journal, touting its abilities to create demand for all types of marketers.

Ad agencies never advertise. The fact that one ad, appearing in two publications is a major news story, just shows you how rare a practice it is. Certainly Coke, Budweiser or Microsoft deciding to run a ad would not be a news story.

It is the point we made in our book The Fall of Advertising, the only industry that doesn’t believe in advertising is the advertising industry itself.

It’s do as we say, not as we do. If advertising was as wonderful and effective as ad agencies promised, why don’t they use the tool to promote their own business?? Umm.

It turns out that what the advertising industry really believes in is PR. It’s why they work like crazy to win awards. You think they want those statues to put on the shelf? No. They want those statues, so they get mentioned in the advertising publication. ADWEEK, Crispin takes Cannes -- amazing. Crispin Porter + Bogusky is the hottest agency in the country. Why? Because they've been winning awards.

And it reinforces the point we have been trying to make in our books and speeches:

PR is more powerful than advertising.

Comments

[Lionel Matecha]

Ad agency runs an ad - what a concept! Perhaps this is a new trend. The Advertising Agency Association of British Columbia recently ran a "Bad Advertising Kills" ad campaign in Vancouver, Canada to communicate that using an ad agency is a smart decision. It would be interesting to know if similar agency advertising is taking place in other metropolitan areas in North America.
Like your books!

[Guruprasad v]

Hi Laura,
I'm great fan Al and Jack.I've read almost all the books written by Al and his former partner jack.Why in this world marketing people are not accepting that brand extensions are not workable.I'm from India. I've been seeing numerous companies using single name to all business.But with one exception.They're successful.For example there is a company called Reliance which is having its name in CDMA,Petroleum,Plastics and you name it they have it. Another one is TATA. They're having business in almost all the industries. They're successful.May be line extensions doesn't work in USA. Here in India Line extensions seems to work well.

[cal]

Some time ago I questioned a marketing guru on his discussion board about what he thought of your The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR. He didn't agree with it and told me why. I told him I didn't think that's what the book really said, and quoted him one passage near the beginning of the book as an example. There were other passages of a similar nature I could have found throughout the book as well. I asked him (in a nice manner) to reply. He wouldn't reply back.

I don't think a lot of people usually read things or accept things very well, especially when what is suggested seems to contradict their already strongly held beliefs (master of the obvious statement.) :)

Keep up the excellent work, Laura.

cal

[Mark Ramsey]

Why, this is a damn good point!

Laura, you should enable trackback. Easier to link to your posts that way.

[Rich Westerfield]

$10 says they win an Andy or Addy. Then the floodgates will open.

Looking forward to more thought. You should link to this from your corporate site...

[BJ]

Laura -

Great post! Ironic, isn't it? An ad agency finally does what they've been selling to others for so long and it becomes a huge deal! Advertising becomes newsworthy?! Rare indeed.

Any given company would do themselves (and their shareholders) great favors by working the PR machine, essentially saving $millions in ad dollars and using a medium that is credible.

Also, welcome to world of blogging! I'll be excited to read your posts.

BJ